Improved fix for boiling- and puddliwg-fitrnaces



tinned fifties Letters Patent No. 98,534, dated January 4, 1870.

IMPROVED FIX FOR BOILING .ANZD PUDDLING-J'U'RNACES.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of thesame.

I, JOHN D. WILLIAMS, of Allegheny, in the State of Pennsylvania, haveinvented a certain new Fix for Boiling or luddling-Furnaces, of whichthe following is a specification.

In mixing and preparing said fix, I make use of the followingingredients, or their equivalents, and in about the followingproportions, viz:

I take, of asbestos, one hundred and fiftyv (150) pounds; groundcrucibles, seventy-five (75) pounds; ground brick-dust, twenty-five (25)pounds; horselnanure, fifty (50) pounds; silicate of soda, G., ten (10)gallons, or so much as is necessary to make said mixture of theconsistency of stiff mortar.

Said composition is used as a fix, in the same manner as fixes made ofore are now used,

The ingredients, asbestos, crucibles, and brick-dust,

are substances which are little affected by heat-so much so that theyare almost indestructible.

The horse-manure contains ammonia, and I have found, by experiment, thatin this form it is much better introduced into my mixture than in anyother.

The silicate of soda, G., forms a glue-like coating or glazing over thewhole mass, .when the heat reaches the fix.

The process now practised is to pack iron-ore about the part of thefurnace where the pig-iron is placed, making a dish-like cavity, withore also placed on the bottom, underthe pig-iron.

This serves many uses'in the reduction of the iron, but especially inretaining the iron in the middle of the furnace, away from the sides,and in keeping the heat from the walls of the furnace, while theprocesses of reduction are going on.

This ore, subject-ed, as it is, to such a high heat, usually becomescinder at the first heat, and unfit to repel the heat, and, of course,necessitating a repackiug, or fixing, as it is known in the art; hencethe great need, long felt by those using boiling or puddling-furnaces,or other receptacles where any fix is required, for some compound orsubstance which would remain unchanged by the heat, and the compositionwhich I have invented meets this de mand, and takes the place of ore.

The'cost of packing the furnaces is also materially reduced, both by thelessened value of the material used, as well as by the saving in laborto refix or pack the furnace after every heating.

Ola im.

\Vitnesses:

OHARLEs T. Conn, WARREN R. PERCE.

